NSA report shines light on communal farming loans

Almost 1 500 agricultural households from a total of 159 484 households applied for loans during the five years preceding the Communal Sector Report for 2013/14, which was published last week.
Results from the just released report compiled by the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) indicate that at regional level Oshikoto recorded the highest number of households (331) that applied for loans, of which 255 (77 percent) were successful.

Ohangwena was the second highest region in terms of loan applicants with 241 households. However, only 168 (69.7 percent) of the applicants secured loans.

The third highest region to have applied for loans was Omusati (231 households) with 192 households (83.1 percent) securing loans. Khomas Region recorded the lowest number of loan applicants, accounting for only five households, of which four received loans.

However, when the total number of households were factored into the analysis, Erongo, Khomas and Omaheke regions – proportionally – had the highest percentage of applicants, with 5.5, 5.3 and 4.8 percent of the total population respectively, as well as the highest recipient percentages of 3.2, 4.3 and 2.8 respectively. Most agricultural households (31 percent) that received loans in the five years preceding the census reported to have taken the loans for livestock purposes. Furthermore, 26.1 percent of the households reported to have received loans for other agricultural purposes, while 21.2 percent of households reported to have received loans for agricultural labour.

From the results it is evident that Agribank provided most of the loans (23.2 percent) to households, of which 139 loan applicants received the loans on the basis of a repayment period exceeding three years. Similarly, family and friends provided loans to 17 percent of the households, where the majority of loan recipients (131 households) had the loan for less than one year.

The results also reveal that 10.6 percent of the households obtained loans under shelter/outside and 10.1 percent got loans from micro-finance institutions. Overall, the loan periods are predominantly less than one year (451 households), followed by between one and three years (341 households).